The pressure cooker got really heated up.

The Ironton defense forced 28 turnovers and converted 21 miscues into points as the Fighting Tigers beat the Rock Hill Redmen 80-37 Friday

in a non-league game.

"We put a lot of pressure on people," Ironton coach Roger Zornes said. "There were times in the first half we didn't take chances. With our defense, you've got to get crazy out there and take chances. When we did, we forced turnovers and turned them into points."

Brigham Waginger went crazy on the offensive end with 25 points as Ironton improved to 3-0. Dennis Gagai had 14 points including three 3-pointers. Cliff Howard had nine rebound, Greg Linn scored 9 points off the bench, and Joe Zornes had five assists.

Aaron Butler scored 7 points and Mark DePriest grabbed seven rebounds for the Redmen, 1-2.

Despite the offensive output, coach Zornes said his team still isn't playing up to its capabilities.

"We have a tendency to stand too much and not move the ball. The first half we didn't move the ball well. The second half we did a better job passing the ball and looking for each other," Zornes said. "We're not where we want to be yet, but we'll get there."

Ironton scored the first 6 points of the game and led 13-2 as a 3-pointer by Gagai and layups by Waginger and Zornes.

Rock Hill' Andrew Stumbo made a layup at the three minute mark to end the run, but Ironton outscored the Redmen 12-5 the rest of the quarter to go up 25-9.

A 3-pointer by Brian Skaggs and a foul shot by DePriest to open the second quarter had Rock Hill within 25-13, but a layup by Patrick Kouns and a foul shot by Marcus Williams ignited a 17-5 spurt by Ironton that was capped when Waginger hit a 3-pointer and followed up his own shot for a 41-16 lead.

Linn's 18-footer and Brandon Walker's jumper from the corner extended the lead to 46-22. Butler hit a 3-pointer with 14 seconds left and it was 46-25 at the half.

The defense picked up in the third quarter and held Rock Hill to 4 points and Waginger scored 10 points as the lead ballooned to 65-33.

Ironton's backups finished the game. Walker's 3-pointer with 51 seconds to play set the final score and gave Ironton's its biggest lead of the game.

In the reserve game, Ironton won 49-20 as Michael Phillips racked up 18 points, Chad Miller 8 and T.J. Keith 7. Rock Hill was led by Nathan Davenport with 5 points while Matt Matney and Eli Kitchen had 4 each.

Rock Hill91684-37

Ironton25211915-80

ROCK HILL (1-2):

K.C. Christian 2-13 (1-6) 0-1 5,

Brian Skaggs 1-5 (1-3) 0-1 3, Mark DePriest 0-2 (0-0) 2-4 2, Nick Snavely 3-6 (0-0) 0-0 6, Mike Ison 2-5 (1-2) 1-2 6, Jarred Casey 1-3 (0-1) 0-0 2, Derek Robinson 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Nick Howard 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Aaron Butler 3-3 (1-1) 0-1 7, Andrew Stumbo 2-3 (0-0) 2-2 6, Mario Tolbert 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0. Totals: 14-40

(4-13)

5-11

37. Fouls: 9. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 9-16=25 (DePriest 7, Snavely 4). Team/deadball rebounds: 7. Assists: 5 (Christian 3). Steals: 5 (DePriest 2, Christian 2). Turnovers: 28.

IRONTON (3-0):

Dennis Gagai 5-12 (3-8) 1-2 14, Brigham Waginger 12-16 (1-3) 0-1 25, Joe Zornes 2-4 (1-2) 1-2 6, Cliff Howard 2-5 (0-0) 0-0 4, Brent McBride 2-4 (0-0) 0-0 4, Marcus Williams 1-3 (0-0) 1-2 3, Greg Linn 4-4 (0-0) 1-2 9, Patrick Kouns 1-2 (0-0) 0-0

2, Brian Wirzfeld 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0, Brandon Walker 2-3 (1-1) 0-0 5, Shawon Miller 2-5 (1-2) 1-2 6, Chad Miller 1-6 (0-1) 0-0 2, Tyler McDaniels 0-0 (0-0) 0-0 0. Totals: 34-64

(7-16)

5-11

80. Fouls: 17. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 12-20=32 (Howard 9, Williams 6, Linn 4). Team/deadball rebounds: None. Assists: 15 (Zornes 5, Gagai 3, Waginger 3). Steals: 16 (Waginger 6, Gagai 3). Turnovers: 9.